Castles

A quick 40-minute train ride from the Gare de Lyon in central Paris takes you to one of the best day trips out of the city: a forest preserve surrounding a palace that dates back nine centuries. The Forêt de Fontainebleau offers a hundred square...

Dromoland, with its towers, turrets, and suits of armor, dates back to 1014. Your room is appointed with ornate furniture, vibrant fabrics, and fairy-tale garden views. While you’re there, try your hand at the regal art of falconry. Dromoland...

The 13th-century estate, Dunrobin Castle, is beautifully situated above a gracious park with formal gardens, overlooking the North Sea, where fabulous falconry performances are staged daily in the gardens.

It's so easy to take the hydrofoil from its dock near the Hermitage museum to visit Peterhof Palace about 20 minutes north of St. Petersburg. The Grand Palace, surrounding buildings and gardens, is sometimes referred to as the "Russian...

Without a doubt Versailles is the most luxurious palace in Europe, built to astound visitors and impress the king's subjects into awed submission with crystal chandeliers, gilt, and fine art. This opulent monument is also attractive...

Palacio Belmonte is a masterpiece—the type of architectural stunner that is said to be ‘mumbling beauty’ in every one of its corners. Every piece of material used to restore it, as well as every piece of furniture inside of it (like these blue...

This chateau is a personal favorite. Most of the photos you see of it show it show it lording over the Cher river, but I decided to use a photo showing one of the courtyards. As is typical with many of the wonderful chateaus of France there are...

Dunnottar Castle is a dramatic and evocative ruined cliff-top fortress in a truly stunning setting. And just a half hour's drive from Aberdeen, Europe's oil-capital. William Wallace and Mary Queen of Scots graced the Castle with their presence....

This treasured country is phenomenal Though this castle by far was the most impressive and seemingly almost undiscovered by the world. And I appreciate why. I felt like ( sadly) I was in a James Bond movie and this was the grand lux hotel. The...

I stumbled upon a photo of this castle on Pinterest from a fellow expat and was stunned at how, well, stunning it was - and that it was only a few hours away from where we live! So on our latest road trip, we made it a stop and were not...

We were in the Loire Valley for the wedding of friends, and the one day when there were no real festivities, we planned to bike from Blois (where we were staying) to Chateau de Cheverny. It had been some time since I'd biked a long distance, let...

With hundreds of castles and chateaux in Belgium, open to the public, it's hard to know which ones to visit. The castle of Freÿr, in Wallonia, is a great place to start. This grand building has remained in the same family for 20 generations and...

Unfortunately I spent most of our trip to Copenhagen in soggy tennis shoes cursing the weather and complaining that we couldn’t picnic in the rose gardens of Rosenborg castle. To escape a sudden downpour we hustled inside the castle to quickly dry...

No trip to Madrid is complete without a tour of the Royal Palace, home to many of the kings and queens of Spain since the 1500s. Inside, every wall, ceiling, and floor either is a work of art, or hosts works of art. One room is made entirely of...

Driving from Greece into Albania on a road trip whim, we found ourselves in the town of Gjirokastra, having been enchanted by a large hillside fort seen from the main road. A winding drive up into town leads to the base of the dominating...

Few sights encapsulate the magical feel of the Bavarian Alps like Neuschwanstein Castle. The impressive towers, vast halls, and mountain-top setting bring out your inner child, transporting you back to a time of bedtime stories and...

Multiple generations ago, when the suburb of Heliopolis really was a countryside destination, the man responsible for the urban planning of the district was given his own plot of land to build his home on. Fascinated with the Indian culture and...